Thursday, 20 December 2012

The Best Media Quotes of 2012: An arresting year for British journalists and journalism. . . .

Arrest of Journalists

Press Gazette editorDominic Ponsford onhis blog, commenting on the arrest of more than 20 journalists in the UK: "For eight of the nine years I've worked for Press Gazette the
arrest of a journalist in the course of their work has been an
extraordinarily rare occurrence in the UK. Today it is commonplace. In
previous years, editors and publishers would have protested from the
rooftops at the sight of police bids to disclose sources and close down
unofficial leaks of information by use of draconian powers. Today, at
News International anyway, editors and publishers are not just mute -
but complicit in the arrest of journalists and disclosure of sources."

Mail's Lawrence campaign leads to convictions

Jonathan Freedland in theGuardian:
"He made an unlikely anti-racist campaigner, but there were few voices
more critical in the demand for justice for Stephen Lawrence than
Paul Dacre and the Daily Mail. It was the Mail's
1997 front page headline, branding Lawrence's alleged killers
"Murderers", that helped make the case impossible to ignore. It was,
without question, the Mail's finest hour."

Tony Parsons on Twitter: "Congratulations to Hugh
Grant and Steve Coogan for bringing Stephen Lawrence's killers to
justice - oh, sorry, I mean the British press."

Marie Colvinkilled in Syria

Peter Oborne in the Daily Telegraph:
"Some will observe that many other people died in the Syrian fighting
yesterday, and may very reasonably ask what is so special about one
Western journalist. There is great insight in this question because it
points to the solipsism of a world in which it seems sometimes that
terrible events only really register when an affluent white person gets
killed. But remember this: without the staggering fortitude and
self-sacrifice of Marie Colvin, and her journalist colleagues still
reporting from the carnage in Syria, we simply would not have a sense of
the nature or the scale of the killing."

Channel 4 News' Jon Snow on Twitter: "Assad's
assassination of Marie Colvin:Utterly devastating: the most
couragious journalist I ever knew and a wonderful reporter and writer."

Marie Colvin in an email to Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East editor, about her final Sunday Times article on Homs:
"I thought yesterday's piece was one of those we got in to journalism
for. They are killing with impunity here, it is sickening and
anger-making."

Leveson gives his verdict

Lord Justice Leveson in his Report: "There have been too many times when, chasing the story, parts of the press have acted as if its own code, which it wrote, simply did not exist. This has caused real hardship and, on occasion, wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people whose rights and liberties have been disdained. This is not just the famous but ordinary members of the public, caught up in events (many of them, truly tragic) far larger than they could cope with but made much, much worse by press behaviour that, at times, can only be described as outrageous."

David Cameron in the House of Commons, as reported by BBC News, after saying he had "serious misgivings" about independent self regulation of the press being underpinned by law because: "We would have crossed the Rubicon of writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land, we should be wary of legislation that has potential to infringe free speech and a free press."

The Daily Mail in a leader: "To his enormous credit, however, David Cameron sees this report for what it is — a mortal threat to the British people’s historic right to know. If he prevails in protecting that right, with the help of like-minded freedom lovers in the Commons and Lords, he will earn a place of honour in our history."

Chris Horrie, quoted in the Independent, on Leveson: "Kelvin MacKenzie is a national treasure and he's very funny, but asking him for advice on the ethics of journalism is like asking Harold Shipman for advice on medical ethics. This thing is just a circus."

Baroness Buscombe, ex chair of the Press Complaints Commission, at Leveson: "I remember towards the end of my time there, one of the editors asked me 'Peta, don't you trust us?'. And I said with an incredibly heavy heart 'How can I?'. We felt we hadn't been told the truth."

Sir Harold Evans at Leveson: "We have a situation where newspapers employ private detectives. We used to employ reporters".

Rupert Murdoch at Leveson: "I love newspapers... my shareholders would like me to get rid of them all."

Gordon Brown at the Leveson Inquiry: “Would any mother or father presented with a choice as to whether the medical condition of their four-month-old son should be broadcast on the front page of a tabloid newspaper, and who had a choice in this matter, allow it?”

Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher ‏@gallaghereditor on Twitter on the post-Leveson meeting of national newspaper editors in Downing Street: "It felt like the summoning of the Five Families in The Godfather "

Dan Sabbagh in the Guardian:
"There is, behind the scenes, an almost comic attempt to get all the
newspaper groups to sign up to some sort of statement on regulatory
reform. But it would be easier to get 10 cats to sashay down Oxford
Street in a straight line."

Emily Bell on the Guardian's Comment is Free: "Leveson deals with the nefarious ways of publishing personal
information; it deals with the fallout of incestuous relationships run
from the heart of government; and it deals with the personal cost of
people crushed by journalism-as-showbusiness. What it cannot deal with
is the regulation of the press in the 21st century."

Harry Evans vindicated on Times

Sir Harold Evans on the Today programme about the revelation Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch met shortly before he was allowed to buy The Times and Sunday Times: "It's
highly improper. Here's a prime minister meeting one of a number of
bidders for Times Newspapers in secret. There's no mention of the law on
monopolies. The whole thing is so squalid, I don't know whether to
laugh or cry at being vindicated after all this time."

Good press, bad press

Ben Fenton, of the Financial Times, speaking in a discussion on
the Leveson Inquiry at the Frontline Club: "The
difference between a good newspaper and a bad newspaper is that on a
good newspaper the reporter tells the newsdesk what the story is and on a
bad newspaper it is the other way around."

Regional press under pressure

Chris Oakley on the regional press in the book What Do We Mean By Local?, edited by John Mair, Neil Fowler and Ian Reeves: "The
real losers from the financial folly of the past decade are
communities up and down the country which are now worse informed than a
century ago."Chris Oakley at the Society of Editors' regional conference in Manchester: "Time has run out for big city dailies, the
internet has hit regional daily newspapers particularly hard, I wouldn't
buy a big city daily even for a pound." The Leicester Mercury NUJ chapel in an open letter to their boss - publisher David Simms - protesting at more job cuts:"We are being run by a man -
you, Mr Simms - who recently told journalists here that you did not
read a daily newspaper. You also said that you did not like sport - one
of the main drivers of the Mercury’s sales. Neither statement inspired confidence, and now our fears have been abundantly justified."Ex-Western Daily Press editor Terry Manners in Press Gazette:
"I will never forget the words of the time-and-motion man who was
assigned with a team to cut operational costs in the building. They
hurt us all greatly. 'The trouble with you and your team, Terry, is
that you are trying to be too professional,' he said. 'You don't need to
be. Leave it to the nationals.' Sadly he won."Gordon Brown at Leveson: "My own local newspaper has just
had its editorial staff merged with the next door newspaper. They’re
running down the numbers of staff that are providing this
local service and I think you would find this in every part of the
country that you go into, and more than that, you’re finding it all
across the world now, because an internet journalist, who is someone
who’s sort of doing their own, if you like, self-journalism, can put
their views up on a screen and put their views across the world, but if
they’re not resourced and they’re not doing proper research and there’s
no investigative journalism, then we’re diminishing the quality of the
output that is available to us.” Peter Oborne at Leveson: "For all its blissful parish magazine quality the regional press does
not play a serious role in addressing Poulson-style scandals which go on
to this day." Local World chairman David Montgomery, as quoted by Press Gazette: “This is an entirely new type of media business. The
value of Local World will lie in its people, its franchises and its IP.
It will be unencumbered by the infrastructure of the industrial past
such as property, printing presses and large scale distribution or any
legacy issues such as high levels of debt. Local World signals the
fightback in Britain’s regional media industry.”

Brooks to Cameron

Rebekah Brooks in email to David Cameron, leaked to the Mail on Sunday: "Brilliant speech. I cried twice. Will love working together."

Clarkson on Watson

Jeremy Clarkson on Tom Watson MP on Have I Got News For You:"A neckless, adenoidal Brummie who is a pitiful waste of blood and organs."

Fired up tweet

Lambeth Council PR Sam Masters sets fire to his job and resigns after tweeting:“Having spent a considerable amount of time in Streatham, my
solutions for supporting the High Road mostly involve napalm.”

Joyful text

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt in a text message to James Murdoch re-BSkyB:“Great and congrats on Brussels, just Ofcom to
go!”.

The Last Word

David Hepworth on the closure of his magazine The Word : "We regret to announce that the August issue of The Word,
which will be published in the second week of July, will be the last.
In the nine years since the magazine launched there have been
dramatic changes in the media and the music business. These changes have
made it more difficult for a small independent magazine to survive and
provide its staff with a living. This hasn't been made any easier by the
economic climate of the wider world."

Golden Oldie

Richard Ingrams in the Telegraph celebrating 20 years of his magazine, The Oldie:"Soon after issue one went on sale, Julie Burchill sent me a fax
saying: 'Congratulations on producing the most pathetic magazine ever
published.' I
felt more confident. It was exactly the kind of attack from exactly
the kind
of person to suggest that we must be doing something right."

Tory MPs clash over Prince Harry pics

Louise Mensch quoted in the Sun supporting the paper's publication of naked Prince Harry pics: “We cannot have our press scared to publish things that are in
the public interest. Someone, a total stranger, took those photos — and
honeytraps have happened.”

MP Nadine Dorries on ConservativeHome on Louise Mensch: "I would ask the former MP, next
time she wants to open her mouth about a boy who lost his mother at the hands
of the media in a way which shocked the world, she might want to look to her
own heart and wonder how she would feel? After all, it’s not as though Prince Harry
has admitted to taking illegal drugs, abandoned his post, or failed to turn up
to work every Thursday in the style of Louise Mensch, now is it?"

Simply Outrageous

Jonathan Chait in New York magazine:"The British press is an outrage-generating machine the likes of which we
American reporters can only gaze upon with awe."

Saving the Guardian

David Leigh in theGuardian: "A small levy on UK broadband providers – no more than £2 a month on
each subscriber's bill – could be distributed to news providers in
proportion to their UK online readership. This would solve the financial
problems of quality newspapers, whose readers are not disappearing, but
simply migrating online."The Sun in a leader: "THOSE deluded and arrogant hand-wringers at The Guardian
have come up with a bonkers scheme to impose a tax on broadband users
to fund money- haemorrhaging publications like their own. We have a more
sensible proposal. Why not simply put together a product that excites
and engages the British public."

Sun's Shame over Hillsborough

Dominic Mohan, editor of the Sun, apologises for its infamous 'The Truth' Hillsborough front page: ''Twenty-three years ago The Sun
newspaper made a terrible mistake. We published an inaccurate and offensive
story about the events at Hillsborough. We said it was the truth - it
wasn't. The Hillsborough Independent Panel has now established what really happened
that day. It's an appalling story and at the heart of it are the police's
attempts to smear Liverpool fans. It's a version of events that 23 years ago The Sun went along with and for
that we're deeply ashamed and profoundly sorry."

Careful what you tweet

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger on Twitter, in the Guardian'sOpen door column: "People have to understand that when they use Twitter they have the same ethical and legal responsibilities as with any other medium."

Trashing Trolls

Ex-Loaded editor Martin Daubney in Press Gazette: "We live in the age of the trolls. You get a shit storm of Tweets,
in real time, for saying anything opinionated. My advice? Don’t take
online feedback to heart, be dignified and never engage in a Tweet-off
with the haters. Remember: you’re getting paid to write, they’re not.
Tall poppies will always attract scythes."

Newsnight and Jimmy Savile

Liz MacKean, one of the Newsnight journalists who
investigated sex abuse claims against Jimmy Savile, in an email to BBC
director general George Entwistle, as reported by the Independent:"To see what began as a BBC story running large on ITV is a hard thing.
For it not to be mentioned in any way on Newsnight is another, quite
absurd, thing. But worst of all has been what seems like a concerted
effort to make it appear that our story was about something else,
something that could be dropped and forgotten ahead of fulsome tribute
programmes. It is this which seems to be fuelling the damaging claims of
a cover-up."

Nick Pollard in his review of how the BBC handled the Savile story:"The efforts to get to the truth behind the Savile story proved beyond
the combined efforts of the senior management, legal department,
corporate communications team and anyone else for well over a month." Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail: "If
Jimmy Savile was alive today, he’d have been a star witness at Leveson,
given the full ‘Sir James’ treatment by his lordship and allowed to
trash the Press without fear of contradiction or cross-examination."

Do I go or do I stay now?

Lord Patten on what the BBC Trust conveyed to George Entwistle, as reported by the BBC:"We are not urging you to go. But we are not urging you to stay."

Tucked Up

Is it a bird? is it a plane?..no, it's a blogger

Clark Kent (aka Superman) on quitting the Daily Planet to become a blogger, as reported by the Telegraph: "Why am I the one sounding like a grizzled ink-stained wretch who
believes news should be about – I don't know – news?"

Subtracting Subs

Iliffe News and Media staff memo on plans to scrap subs, as reported by HoldtheFrontPage: “Although there could be some reduction in head count if our proposal to
eliminate the sub editing role is confirmed, it is important to
recognise that the overall aim of our strategy is to increase our
audience through the delivery of high quality content.”

Bashing Boris

Max Hastings in the Daily Mail:
"If the day ever comes that Boris Johnson becomes tenant of Downing
Street, I shall be among those packing my bags for a new life in Buenos
Aires or suchlike, because it means that Britain has abandoned its last
pretensions to be a serious country."

Johnston on journalists

Boris Johnson in the Telegraph: "You can’t 'strike journalists off”, as if they were accountants or lawyers or
gynaecologists. They aren’t a profession: they are a great pulsating rabble
of people who are distinguished only by our desire – I will not say our
ability – to write any old thing for any kind of ephemeral publication.
Anyone can be a journalist. You just have to start a blog, break a few
stories, and bingo, you are a household name."

Print takes gold at the Olympics

Grey Cardigan in Press Gazette's Journalism Weekly on the Olympics: "Those
Geeks might sneer at what they call the Dead Tree Industry, but London
2012 provided a superb example of how grubby old newsprint can still
work its magic. The Times deserves a special mention for that excellent series of wraps, but the 28-page supplements in the Sunday Times were an absolute joy. Superb job, chaps."

The demise of The Dandy

Simon Heffer on MailOnline on the demise of TheDandy, Britain's oldest comic which went online only in December: "Children from eight to 80 felt a kick from the hob-nailed boot of harsh reality yesterday. The Dandy, a staple of so many British childhoods, and the nation’s oldest surviving comic, is on the brink of closure...After
all these years, so much of the D.C. Thomson world has passed into our
culture: a world in which children waged a constant battle of spiteless
amusement against their elders, and got nothing worse than a clip round
the ear for it, seemed to sum up not just a more black-and-white
approach to life, but came close to representing that most elusive of
qualities, the true nature of Britishness."Simon O'Neill ‏ on Twitter: "Working at Derby Telegraph in 90s was like being in a real life edition of The Dandy. Both now things of the past."

Don't do what I did

Joshua Rozenberg, writing on the Legal Cheek blog: "As a job it is very easy, which is why so many people
go into journalism when they have nothing better to do. What’s difficult
now, though, is getting a job in journalism. With newspapers in rapid
decline and the electronic media paying little or nothing to
contributors, the chances of making a living out of it – unless you
started when I did – are vanishingly small. So my advice for anyone seeking to follow in my footsteps is: don’t."

Flying the flag

Joanna Hindley, special advisor to Culture Secretary Maria Miller, to a Telegraph journalist investigating the expenses of her boss: “Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors’ meetings around
Leveson at the moment. So I am just going to kind of flag up that connection
for you to think about.”

Pincered by the police and press

Andrew Mitchell in the Sunday Times: "The dangerous and corrupt relationship between the police and certain
newspapers has been exposed again and again during the Leveson inquiry. Now
I have had a taste of how extraordinarily powerless an individual is when
trapped between the pincers of the police on one side and the press on the
other. If this can happen to a senior government minister, then what chance
does a youth in Brixton or Handsworth have?"

On Yer Marx

Karl Marx on press freedom, as quoted by Mick Hume at the Free Speech Network launch event: "You cannot enjoy the advantages of a free press without putting up
with its inconveniences. You cannot pluck the rose without its thorns!"

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery